Some residents are understandably upset at the National Rifle Association for bombarding them with pro-gun robocalls and postcards that ask the community to oppose gun-control measures that the Connecticut state legislature is considering in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

We must act forcefully to contain gun violence, and that is a political matter. But a year that ended on notes of heroism in response to natural disaster and endurance in response to human horror brings to mind George H.W. Bush’s challenge: We need to become “a kinder, gentler nation.” That seems a worthy resolution for 2013.

The gun lobby and the weapons merchants are counting on our notoriously short national attention span. They are counting on confusion, obfuscation and the quiet mobilization of allies to create one delay after another.

According to anti-feminist and backward-thinking author Charlotte Allen, the killing spree in Newtown, Conn., could have been avoided if only another man had been there and the setting hadn’t been so “feminized.”